Archive for February, 2010

Hello Blog. It’s been a while. How have you been? Are you feeling neglected? I’m sorry. Here’s a hug.

Obviously, February was not the best of months for blogging on our part. Good thing it’s so short. We’ve been very busy raising support this month, and I suppose that’s why we haven’t posted much. Because nothing very exciting has happened, and it’s hard to summarize and explain this whole support process. It’s a big mash of fear, excitement, joy, disappointment, expectation and despair. And that’s just one day. But, I’m feeling capable of putting my thoughts into words today, so here I go.

We started raising support in September, hoping we’d be able to be in Germany in October. It would have taken a miracle, for sure, but we knew that Black Forest Academy wanted us as soon as possible, so we wanted to try. In September, we raised 20% of our support. Yay! From October to January, we raised about 5% more….

Enter Boot Camp.

Boot Camp is a support raising workshop put on by The Body Builders, a group based out of Fayetteville. We’d considered attending Boot Camp in August, but were still in the application process for BFA and didn’t want to spend the money on something we might not need. In January however, we knew we needed it. So, we went down to Ft. Worth for a couple days of support Boot Camping.

And it was amazing. We were already familiar with most of the things discussed at Boot Camp, but hearing them from someone who’s lived on support for 20 years, and being surrounded by sixty other missionaries who were going through the same thing, made a big difference. Boot Camp was encouraging, motivating, convicting and inspiring. We’d basically known what we needed to do to raise support, but after Boot Camp we actually felt capable of doing it.

One of the most helpful things that came out of Boot Camp was The Plan. Boot Camp made us set a date for when we wanted to have our full support. Then, we had to figure out what we needed to do to make that happen. So, our goal was to have our full support by April 1st and be in Germany by April 7th for a retreat.

By the way, if this actually happens, we’re going to have one CRAZY week. Here’s what it would probably look like. We’d finish up our support April 1st, pack everything up, and drive to Muskogee. Israel’s sister, Hannah, gets married on April 3rd. We’d most likely catch a plane to Germany the next day. When we arrived on the 5th (I’m guessing that’s when we’d arrive), we’d move into our apartment and perhaps go buy furniture, get our visas, open bank accounts, etc. Then, we’d drive to the retreat on the 6th or 7th, where we would meet many of our fellow BFA staff members, get adjusted to the time difference, and then head back for the return of students after Spring Break. Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, we set a goal to work towards. In order to accomplish that goal, we estimated how much new support we’d need each week, how many people we’d need to meet with, and how many calls we’d need to make every day in order to set up all of those meetings. So that’s what we’ve been doing since January 25th—calling people, inviting them to join our support team, and praying that God will bring new supporters to our team.

It’s been a wonderful and exhausting 32 days.

In order to keep this post from being ridiculously long, I’m breaking it up. Stay tuned for Part Two. Coming soon.

Yes, I know. Christmas was five weeks ago. Today is February. It’s a little late to be posting about the holidays, but at least we’re not posting this in May. So, here’s a little summary of our holiday travels.

On Friday, December 18th, we got up bright and early and headed to my sister’s apartment in Denton, TX. We got in shortly after lunch and met Jude, the epileptic Schnoodle. Jude was a pillow of curly goodness, who happened to twitch occasionally. Israel and I have realized that we’re not really dog people. We don’t like the drooling and shedding and stinking and poop picking-up. But Jude doesn’t stink, doesn’t shed, and doesn’t officially drool (although he does have a beard). Unfortunately, as all living creatures do, he poops. Anyway, we liked him. If we ever get a dog, I think it might need to be a schnoodle.

So, after meeting Jude, we headed to the University of North Texas to watch my younger sister, Amy, become officially Smart. She’s always been smart, but now she can make sure everyone knows how smart she is by telling them that she has a Masters Degree in Library Science. This not only lets them know that she’s smart, but also incredibly nerdy. I’m quite sure that she and her husband Luke will have the smartest children in my family. Israel and I will have the best looking. Just kidding. Although I do think Israel was the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen. Don’t you agree? I mean really, what little boy stands with his hand in his pocket like that? He’s the older one in the second photo.

So anyway, after the graduation festivities, we hung out at Amy and Luke’s house for several days. We mostly tested out a few new board games: Munchkin Fu (okay), Munchkin Quest (the worst game ever, unless you ask a boy), and Dominion (from the title, you would think I’d hate this game, but no, it’s great). After days of playing games and teaching Jude new tricks, we headed to Telephone to see my family.

My mom had the family over for the first Christmas in her own home in over 10 years. We had a lovely table setting and ate Mexican food, because Christmas food is boring. My mom is also a master present wrapper. Not only does she make presents beautiful, but she makes them fun. When we were little, she’d wrap small presents in HUGE boxes and put rocks, or cans of food, or beans (dried, of course) in with the gift. That way, we’d have no idea what was actually in the gift when we shook it around and felt the edges and tried to peek under the paper. This year, Mom wrapped 20 gifts. 20. For four people. Who don’t really expect presents anymore. So, we each got to open five gifts. They each had a $20 bill stashed somewhere inside. So, $100 each! Woo hoo! After this Christmas, Israel has a better understanding of why it’s vitally important to me that gifts be pretty.

An amazing thing happened while we were in Telephone—Jude got groomed. But he didn’t just get groomed, he got shaved. All the way down. Until he looked like a plush little lamb. And that same day, he got a shot at the vet. And he got nicked while being groomed, nicked in a very uncomfortable place. Let me tell you, a shot, plus a shaving, plus a seriously painful injury that prevents one from sitting down, equals one insane schnoodle. Jude ran around like a dog on speed for about two hours. He was flipping and running in tiny circles and jumping all over things. And then he crashed. And his little head drooped all the way to the floor because he was so exhausted. Please enjoy these lovely before and after photos of Jude.

So, after Christmas, we headed to the Jernigan home where we basically played games the whole time (our favorite thing). By the way, the Jernigans have graciously taken on The Best Cat Ever, Felin. And let me tell you, after one month there, she is a different cat. I blame it on Cricket, the rat-dog. Shortly after Felin arrived, Cricket did too. And they do not get along. Poor Felin.

Cricket – The Instigator

Felin – The Victim

Look at that poor cat. Alas.

Moving on, after Muskogee we drove 12 hours to Colorado through the wasteland that is Kansas. Kansas is normally not the most exciting place to drive through, but on both the way there and back, Kansas was shrouded in fog. Cold, freezing, fog. It was like we were in a bubble of grey. The land was gray, the sky was gray and the mist-walls were gray. Kansas in December, the perfect setting for horror films. Anyway, we arrived at my Dad’s house in Colorado, after I nearly slid our car backwards off the driveway, which happens to be a cliff. We spent four lovely days there. My Dad’s house is awesome. It’s in this lovely little canyon with red-rock formations and mountains. The whole back wall of their house is windows. It’s great. I highly recommend visiting. While we were there, we got MORE Christmas/my-26th-birthday money, and what do you think we did with all of that cash?

Guess.

We bought Rosetta Stone. And it’s awesome. I recommend Rosetta Stone just as much as visiting my Dad’s house.

Then, after 17 days of being away, we returned to good ol’ Arkansas. Whew.

Oh yes, while we were gone, the couple we’re living with bought a house, packed up, moved all of their stuff and ours to the new house, and cleaned the old one. And we weren’t even there to help. We have good friends.

Now enjoy the myriad of photos that we felt needed to accompany this post.